Action Heroes in Bangalore

consumption. idle. comfort. stiff. inserted. indifference. stares. glares. question. egoes. courage. dodge. defense. conversations. opinions.

Call it a treat or the aha moment. Finally an entire railing stretch flanked by women, doing nothing, just looking, hanging out, being themselves.

What if?

there were just more women occupying the road?

all looking back at you?

this should not be anything unusual anyways...
and yet if this were everyday there would be no need for Action Heroes .

We were just a group between 20 to 30 people. That evening we saw the nature of the place change, gradually. Jan 28 the following Action Heroes were there to make themselves feel safe comfortable and challenged .

For those of you who know Brigade Road, Bangalore- the photos are self explanatory.

Paige Trabulsi. Yamini Deen. Soumya Shekhar. Surabhi Kukke. Amrutha Bushan. Archana Srinivasan. Chris. Kunal Ashok. Kathleen. Anusree M Jois. Vivek. Neha. Smita. Naina Bharni. Sanjana Janardhan. Soumita Majumdar. Shalini Mukherjee + x no. participants from the public.

Here's what the Action Heroes had to say:

I am not used to standing alone. It in begining it was scary. I was finally seeing the faces on the street- Neha

In the begining I occupied the space of the idle guy, cruising brigade road, consuming women's bodies-Surabhi

People were mesmerized. They were curious when they saw Brigade road's railing flanked by women- Paige

I felt empowered when I blew the whistle and we all looked at the security guard- Naina
( the security guard had dared to 'brush' against some of the 'action heroes'.)



Defense is choreographed. It's non verbal and establishes the relationship between looking and power.

We defend only when there is a need.

It results in the person feeling threatened by a group of women who are doing nothing but just looking back. Usually he slips away.

Kunal Ashok shares his experience with someone who was confronted-
There was this one guy (about 25 yrs old) who the girls sorrounded and
stared back at at the intervention. He slipped away quietly. He
noticed I was part of the group too (since i was distributing
pamphlets). And so he came up to me. As we struck a conversation, his
demeanor had completely changed from the earlier gung-ho attitude.

It was evident that he'd fallen from grace as he was being very non
comittal about the whole incident. So, he asked me what it was all
about. I explained to him about BNP and our activities, and what we
just did. He seemed to understand. Deep down inside, he knew he'd done
something wrong... but he wasn't man enough to admit it i guess.

He tried dodging the issue by saying that "These girls are just
causing inconvenience to the public. nothing else". I replied saying
that no one else has a problem with it.

Note: our objective is not to 'catch' men, but to intervene in the streets/ to be ourselves/ to reclaim space/ to confront street sexual harassment.

What if we were a 100?
NEXT ACTION- FEB 11

ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 28TH. BANGALORE

Blank Noise Project Bangalore calls for women/ girls/ ladies/ of all ages, languages, colour, and shape to be participate in a street intervention on Sunday January 28th.
By participating you will be celebrated as a BNP Action Hero.

We guarantee that this action won't ask you to be acrobatic, but to be yourself, and experience the site you act upon transform. Be the stimuli, be an action hero.

Confirm /ask us questions at 98868 40612. This street intervention will be approximately 1.5 hours ( 5 - 6 30 pm)

To sign up mail us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com, subject titled ACTION HERO, BANGALORE. Any one can volunteer to work behind the scenes/ run around and get this going! Last week was handled by Yamini Deen, Soumya Shekhar and also Sanjana.

Looking forward to plenty of action!

CONFIRMED ACTION HEROES:

1. Paige Trabulsi
2. Yamini Deen
3. Soumya Shekhar
4. Amrutha Bhushan
5.Sonali Bhattacharya
6. Nishrin Aziz
7. Anusree M Jois
8. Surabhi
9. Dev Sukumar
10. Sanjana Janardhan + 1
11. Kunal Ashok
12. Irene Lily Philip
13. Sangeeta Saksena
13. Laura Neuhas
14. Soumita
15. Madhu Krishnan
16. Archana Srinivasan
17. Vikram Vaidyanathan
18. Naina
19. Vivek
20. Smita
21. Sujata Bhatt
22. Payal Kamat
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.

JAN 21+ 28 BANGALORE!

An action hero's reaction is not an emotional outburst, but infact a strategy/ a plan/ a choreography. An Action Hero knows how to judge a situation. An Action Hero chooses to confront or not to confront, but at no point ignores/ avoids the problem. Are you one?
Would you like to be an ACTION HERO?

How do I become one?
One of the few ways in which you can become one is by participating in the next Blank Noise street intervention scheduled for Jan 21st and Jan 28th both in Bangalore.

What will we do?
We will simply be ourselves. We will do a very simple action that will transform the nature of the place for that period of time. We will also challenge ourselves, just a bit.

What will this acheive?
We guarantee you nothing but some more questions to think about, perhaps some insight? Every Action Hero has a different story of acheivement.

How do I participate?
contact us/ sms at 98868 40612
email us. subject titled 'ACTION HERO' BANGALORE.

Can I bring other prospective Action Heroes along?
Yes! please bring friends, cousins, neighbours, anyone, any age, any profession, anyone willing to experience. Both men and women are welcome.

To be in loop with bangalore discussions and events sign up at http://groups.google.co.in/group/bnpbangalore

The list begins here!
1. Bhumika Rajan
2. Laura Neuhas
3. Neela Banerjee
4. Yamini Deen ( event assistant director)
5. Sanjana Janardhan
6. Radhika Miglani
7. Nisrin Aziz+ friends
8. Soumya Chandra Shekhar- ( behind the scenes)
9. Kunal Ashok
10. Nitin
11. Arvind Batra
12. Anusree M Jois
13. Tharunya Balan
14. Sneha Singh
15. Paige Trabulis
16. Surabhi
17. Irene Lily Philip
18. Nishank Pathak
19.Surya Balakrishnan
20. Pratyusha
21. Archana Srinivasan
22. Madhurya Balan
23. Manju Ramachandran
24.Sushmita
25. Navaneethan + 25
26. Sonali Bhattacharya
27. Gauri
28. Ramya
29. Shivali M.
30. Suren Vikash
31. Surekha
32.Chinmayee
33. Mr. Aziz
34.
35.
36.
27.
28.
29.
30.

Kya Dekh Rahe Ho- report

KYA DEKH RAHE HO?

stands for 'What are you looking at?!'

Blank Noise + JAGORI

Location: Saket, traffic signal
Date: Dec 2006
Blank Noise event Director, Abigail Crisman

The idea:

looking, glancing, staring, leching, glaring, gazing can be forms of violation. We repeat, it is not in looking (verb), but in how one looks ( adjective). An individual could feel violated just by the way or manner in which she is even glanced at...

Most of us have been taught to not look back and to avoid situations rather than confront them. Hence we make ourselves safe on the streets by maintaining eye contact with the footpath and ignoring every passing comment, touch, whistle, pinch....accepting it as a way of life, as something to be expected, accepted and not dealt with.

'KYA DEKH RAHE HO?'/ (what are you looking at?)


This was a collaboration with JAGORI. 13 Action Heroes were asked to be an alphabet and stand at the traffic signal. Together they formed a sentence, KYA DEKH RAHE HO?

In the meantime volunteers ( male and female) from both Jagori and Blank Noise distributed pamphlets to people in traffic.

(A similar intervention has been done in other cities titled, Y R U LOOKING AT ME?)

Shruti Priya from JAGORI and also a Blank Noise Action Hero
This was my second intervention with Blank Noise. And just like the first one it was empowering to stand in a public space and stare back at men. I thought this intervention was particularly effective in terms of generating curiosity amongst on-lookers and attracting their attention.
People actually rolled down their windows to take the leaflets that were being distributed by JAGORI and Blank Noise. In the normal course they would shoo or simply ignore people distributing leaflets.

Suparna Kudesia , Blank Noise Action Hero
Aggression. Power. Control. Words we have gendered and experience in a gendered world. For being traditionally masculine concepts, the 13 women took them on in their own distinct ways. I, hesitantly, and with a prolific bout of shyness, put on my 'O'. One letter suddenly transformed me into a group member. I rephrase- a team member. Though it accorded me the gall to stand in the middle of the road (I was actually on the edge), it made me feel extremely self-conscious, like never before. Not to be mistaken as something awful, the ability to be self conscious is a rewarding and empowering one, if done in a certain context. Friday night's intervention was that context. It being my first intervention of any kind with Blank Noise, I went in without pre-conceptions and came out with many more questions and a few answered ones. As I mentioned in the post-intervention de-brief, the irony of the night struck me. My ability to stand on a crowded intersection, wearing what I desired, fighting against a system we reinforce everyday- the very system that allots me the (unquestionable) freedom to stand publicly with a shiny red 'O' stuck on my sweat-shirt. But this irony is not defeating, it's actually quite simple, if one sees that what we're asking for is our right to not have to be grateful if we walk out on the street at night in the clothes of our choice, and not get harassed. The air reeked of militancy and aggression- things I am personally not comfortable with. But also present was a sense of purpose. My sense of power came not from the ability to stare back, but from the knowledge that I have right to do so without the threat of retaliation. In all, an interesting experience would be very worth the while to try out in other places.

Ritambhara Mehta, Blank Noise Action Hero
I am not going to talk to about what happened and how people reacted. Will talk about how I felt ? The reason why I participated. I had a funny feeling inside on the way to Saket. This was my first time (had a chance before but was too unsure about attending it).
Being K (right in front, i chose it) made me even more nervous ( i tend to get panic attacks for nothing).The first few minutes were scary and I kept on figuring things out but then the feeling of being empowered, empowered to do something as big as this (i mean it) struck me. The feeling was wonderful, standing there with 13 other girls was AMAZING. How often can you look into someone' eye and without saying a word convey a message ?
The distribution of testimonials was scary. I could'nt see myself giving them to complete strangers without uttering a word but I did.

The best part about the evening was the trip back home. Catching a nice autowala was a surprise. Got down at Suparna's place, I was suppose to cover a short distance for my car. That small walk felt so good, was not holding onto anything, even my sweater.

Others who made this event happen- Annie Zaidie, Amit Kendurkar, Kalpana Vishwanath (JAGORI), Sidarth.

Apologies for the delay in posting this event. We have been waiting for the visuals to go along with it. ..they say its on its way! If any of you were present there and have photographs or short videos of this event, please send it to us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com. Thankyou!!

PS: Blank Noise T shirts for women who take auto rides-

Presenting Kya Dekh Rahe Ho? t shirts for autos with rear view mirrors. Get one T for your self and two for your friends!

ACTION HEROES IN BANGALORE

Action Heroes include:
Ratna Apnender
Laura Neuhas
Soumya Chandra Shekhar
Kripa Jaganath
Radhika Miglani
Priya Thangarajah
Ponni
Kunal Ashok
Tharunya Balan
Vinaya
Vani Subramaniam
Anushree M Jois
Sujata Bhatt
Shobha Vishwanathan
Rachel



An Action Hero wore the arrow and stood by the railing. The other Action Heroes went about dispersing testimonials in the form of letters. The receivers of letters were asked to identify the girl with an arrow and join her..

Dear Stranger


It was always a feeling of shame. Shame that when 14, a passing cyclist grabbed me. Shame that in the school bus, the driver always fiddled with the rearview mirror so he could look at my chest. Shame that men leered with smug smiles when I walked past. Or tried to brush up against me. Shame because I felt it happened only to me and only because there was something wrong with the way I looked or dressed or walked or talked or was. Something wrong - terribly, terribly so - with me.

And the only reaction seemed to be silence. Because confrontation might lead to attention being drawn to a dirty experience I wanted to keep secret. Because speaking out meant acknowledging that something was wrong when I could cloak it.

You will see me. I am the girl by the railings wearing a red arrow. If you know what it means take an arrow from me, wear it and stand with me. I will be around until 7 this evening.

Sincerely,

A girl

The arrow symbol definitely got the team some attention. Some responded but not too many actually joined us...moreNitesh( boy in mustard shirt) joined Kunal Ashok and began to distribute pamphlets. It was a mixed reaction from women passersby- while most ignored, the others chose to say, ' we are in a hurry'. A woman is unlikely to stand on the road, look back at people in the eye and draw attention to herself, that's precisely why 'eve teasing' is ignored.

Our first time Action Hero Kripa writes:

when i started out giving letters to people a lot of times i felt i have to be assertive but so may people shy away or wave their hands saying" no thanks, we dont need it".. making eye contact is easy.. but persisting at it.. not in a confrontational or retaliating manner but as a way to make that "connection".. thats really tough... that something i need to work on....

standing by the railings.... that got me a plethora of reactions... eye contact here is not tough.. having a blank look.. like i dont really have anything to do.. know what?.. i realized at this point.. i started to like what i was doing. i dont want to perform anymore. i want to be... like how i was at the railings.. i faced mockery, genuine interest, active participation, negativity, in difference,curiosity, intimidation created because of the "performance",humour,and some times just plain idiocy of some people and most importantly questions in my mind.. to which im still finding answers...

Soumya C Shekhar writes:

I loved wearing the arrow. It was a pleasant change to be looked in the face (eventually). I really enjoyed this intervention and somehow wearing the arrow really helped me be in the "performance" mode and use my body as a statement better. I thought claiming space in front of mota arcade with a "follow the leader" plan rocked! Really wish we do more of those. Maybe next time I'll be at the pamphlet/letter distributing end and see what insights I can gather from that perspective. It was also nice to see a decent number of girls turning up at events and encouraging people to join us and be part of BNP even if it was just for a minute was again a great idea which I hope to see repeated very often. All in all very very enjoyable.


Next Bangalore event is on Jan 7th 2007!

Bangalore Dec 10th: Calling Action Heroes!

To be an Action Hero, please email us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com, subject titled, ' Bangalore, Action Hero'. Hurry!

To be in loop with bangalore discussions and events sign up at http://groups.google.co.in/group/bnpbangalore

Participants include:

1. Ratna Apnender
2. Yamini Deen
3. Soumya C. Shekhar
4. Tharunya Balan
5. Nishrin Aziz
6. Sujata Bhatt
7. Itisha Peerbhoy
8. Radhika Miglani
9. Laura Neuhas
10. Shashikala S
11. Kritika Veigas
12. Kunal Ashok
13.Shreya Sajankila
14.Parineeta Balasubramanium
15. Priya Thangarah
16. Prasad
17.Vani Subramaniam
18. Sneha Singh
19. Krupa Jaganath
20. Shobha Vishwanathan
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.

Read about Blank Noise Bangalore's recent street intervention here.

Mumbai Dec 10th

To participate mail us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com, subject titled ' action hero. mumbai'.
You can also log on to http://groups.google.co.in/group/blanknoiseprojectmumbai?hl=en

Mumbai Action Heroes include:
1. Pallavi Sen
2. Shriya Pilgaonkar
3. Nisha Chandwani
4. Varsha Chandwani
5. Cheryl Deutsch
6.Gayathri Parameshwaram
7. Rajvi Mariwala
8. Deepa Jhaveri
9. Kabi
10. Sophie
11.
12.
13.

+ Chinmayee Manjunath

Venue: Bandra Terminus

Mumbai's most recent public intervention can be read here.

DELHI DEC 8th: Are the Action Heroes ready?

This Friday we tie up with Jagori, Delhi, and ask Kya Dekh Rahe Ho? ( what are you looking at?/ Y R U LOOKING AT ME?) Talking of looking- Blank Noise T shirts ask auto drivers with rear view mirrors' Kya Dekh Rahe Ho?'( what are you looking at?!)

Jagori's safe delhi campaign has also made a short film, 'Staring hurts'.

For more details/ or to sign up, email us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com, with subject titled 'DELHI. ACTION HERO.'

To be in the loop about Delhi Blank Noise events specifically join us at
http://groups.google.co.in/group/bnpdelhi


Action Heroes include:
1.Abby Crisman
2. Abby Baxi
3. Harneet Bhatia
4. Naveena Swapnabh
5. Annie Zaidie
6. Girija Duggal
7. Shruti Priya from Jagori
8. Nikita Doval+ anon friend
9. Suparna Kudesia
10. Priyanka Verma
11. Atreyee Majumder
12. Ritambhara Mehta
13. Smita Jain
14. Anisha AK
15. Sid Singh
16. Siddarth Mukund Srivastav
17.Seema Srivastava
18. Rohini
19. Kalpana Viswanath
20. Kalyani Menon-Sen
21. Shubha Menon
22. Deepa Menon
23. Amit Kendurkar
24. Kurien Abraham
25. Sandhya
26. Mahavir
27. Madhu
28.Tarunima Sen
29. Seetha Natesh
30. Sujata Sarkar
31. Samvedna
32. Benita Sharma
33.Amulya
34.Anupriya


HURRY!

Mumbai intervention - December 3

Andheri station at 5pm on a Sunday evening is packed. As crowds milled around, the six action heroes moved within the spaces outside the platform. What was first met with amused curiosity soon became the focus of attention within about 15 minutes.

We started by spreading out across the space, with enough distance between each girl so as not to seem like a group. Then, everyone stood in a row, first on one side and then the other. Gayatri handed out the first testimonial to a young man who stood outside an STD booth and stared at her for a while. He read it, made his calls and walked away. Nisha, Rajvi and Aurina gave the next ones to a group of four, who read it, did not look at the girls again and passed the testimonials around to other men. Sophie gave one to a man who stood across from her; he read it, came up to her, thanked her and left. As the girls experimented with the space, standing alone, all together and then in twos, men, alternatively, either looked away or stared back quite in disbelief. Before we left, after an hour, we distributed testimonials to the mute spectators. From the sidelines, I saw two boys walk past, and mutter - "What are the spice girls doing here?" They got a testimonial from me and walked away with shamefaced grins.

The 'spice girls', our action heroes, reclaimed Andheri station one teeming Sunday evening. And next week, we'll move to another public space.

Here are accounts from some of the action heroes who participated:

this was the 2nd time I participated. to tell you the truth i was pleasantly surprised. i am told and i know that men are slow to change and accept things. but men whom we gave the testimonials were reading it seriously. and were giving it a thought. this is a good thing. but i dont expect this to happen in deep suburbs. and definitely not in any other city. now if i ever want to stand in the premises of Andheri station, just like that, i think i will.
- Varsha

well, i feel very empowered with every intervention of ours. but i feel that as we were all 'decently' dressed, we got a somewhat positive response (i cringe to use the word 'decent'). how people's reaction would be if we were in 'revealing' dresses (i cringe again) and standing just like that ? at andheri station, a spectator who read our testimonial asked what about the girls who wear 'revealing' clothes. i feel this kind of attitude needs to be tackled in our subsequent interventions.
- Nisha

I was always taught that staring at people was bad manners. Needless to say, then, it took me a little while at the intervention to get into the groove of things. At first, I found myself reflexively looking away when a man caught my eye. But once I got used to the concept, the feeling of empowerment was incredible. What I realised was that, true to the feminist axiom, it all just comes down to power. Once confronted with a reciprocal glare, I'd say 99% of the men cowered away, sometimes with sheepish grins, other times looking over their shoulders in disbelief to check if I was still staring at them. And I was. And I enjoyed it. And I want to continue to do this in my daily life, not just as part of a Blank Noise intervention.
- Aurina

well, this was my first intervention and a unique experience indeed. it takes a little effort to tune oneself to actually stare back at the men. but, once you get used to the shift in the power equation, it feels good. i got this rush of courage, i dont know from where! may be because, we were all in a group. it was interesting to gauge the reactions of the men. some of them are very timid on the inside but show just the opposite on the outside.
- Gayatri

personally i have never been scared to give it back to men who were getting intimate with me without my consent. i have been dealing with this since my childhood. Sombody staring at me doesn't really affect me because i just don't pay attention on the other side maybe i'm stared at, because i'm a foreigner. But i can't take any intimate contact, whatever it might be, against my will.

When this occurs i just slap or push and say that they dont have the right to touch me. i participated in the performance because men have to understand that they don't have to take women as merely an object of pleasure and that we do not enjoy their unchosen behaviours.

how i felt during the performance ? it felt a bit strange to be there and pay attention to looks men were giving . in the begining i wasn't really sure if i had understood the purpose of the performance till there were some guys who weren't merely staring at us out of curiosity. During the performance we were demanded to stand alone or in a group. standing in a group is definately very powerful, because of the energy that comes out of the group. i think that the idea of giving the explicative pamphlet after holding on to their looks was super positive and i was amazed by the response of the men who we gave the pamphlet to.
- Sophie

Sign Up!

BLANK NOISE PROJECT will intervene on the streets of Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai between the 3rd and the 10th of Decemeber

Are you ready to be a Blank Noise Action Hero?

Email us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com, with your, ' city name/ Action Hero'.

Mumbai will have two events over both sundays.The first event is on Sunday, Dec 3rd at Andheri Station, 5 pm sharp.

Participants include: 1. Pallavi Sen 2. Nisha Chandwani 3. Varsha Chandwani 4. Riya Kartha 5. Suparna 6. Sowmya 7. Rajvi Mariwala 8. Deepa 9. Aurina Chatterjee

Bangalore: Dec 10th.

Delhi: Dec 8th. Blank Noise partners with Jagori.

(Hyderbad & Chennai to be announced)

Who is an action hero?
A Blank Noise Action Hero is a super woman who has dealt with street sexual harassment by not ignoring or avoiding it but through confrontation and by taking agency.